The Southern Crescent, New York City, finally, Boston and a Note...

Sunday, January 17, 2010, New Orleans, LA 7:05am: After two glorious and far-too-short days in New Orleans we board Amtrak's Southern Crescent for the 32 hour run to New York City. I had mixed feelings about this segment because the old Crescent operated by the Southern Railway was the first train I ever rode as a 7^th grader going to Washington and New York on a school trip and because we had run into other travelers on this trip who had recently rode the entire segment and described the train as 'horrible'.

Information about Amtrak's Crescent

Nothing could have been further from the truth. This train has a long history of service and pride in it's famous train crews and the level of service they provided. Those pictures you often see of white jacketed African American 'Pullman Porters' and dining car waiters and waitresses were most likely crews from the Crescent. At a time when the highest rank a blue-collar black man could achieve was a job as a Pullman Porter, the Crescent crews were the pinnacle of gracious service proudly offering the very best in Southern Hospitality. The Southern operated hotels along it's route were where travelers could extend that hospitality into a few days stay. Even as late as the 1980's some of these hotels still operated in places like Roanoke, Virginia, for example, where very tired waiters still dressed in the traditional starched white jacket and made feeble attempts to keep that tradition alive. Some of these grand old hotels still rank as some of the finest resort hotels in the World such as the Homestead Hotel in Virginia and Greenbrier resort in West Virginia both at one time owned and operated by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.

Updated to a contemporary version of service and hospitality, the train crew on the Crescent did their ancestors proud. Great rolling stock, clean, friendly, excellent food (Our cook had been working on the train 22 years and still prepared New Orleans style meals from scratch each night), service s till prevailed with a smile. It was a pleasure to be back on the Crescent for our last night on the rails.

The modern version of the Crescent consist of two sleeper cars at the rear of the train preceded by the dining car and the cafe car, then the coach cars, baggage cars and engine. This is an especially nice consist as it separates the sleepers completely from the coaches so the sleepers get their food services from the Dining Car and the Coaches get theirs from the cafe car. On some trains the consist has been such that we had to pass through Coaches to reach the dining or Cafe Cars and having dining right next door is so convenient.

The train pulled out of New Orlean's Union Station at 7:05 am on the dot. Union Station is a late 60's Station which was built with style and grace which was not common in 60's architecture. The station has been maintained and not remuddled so it still says, “Welcome, you are in a different place...Relax, and enjoy yourself...” it shares the space with the Greyhound bus depot but has not become tawdry as both train and bus service have declined.

The Crescent makes a diagonal swatch across the South crossing Lake Pontchartrain, then through swamps and fields of Louisiana and Mississippi in many places still showing the old tenant farmer houses I remember seeing in these same towns as a young person. However, now in many places neat towns are stops on the track where pride in the Town and neighborhood have succeeded where economic growth has not. As the afternoon passes soft rain and a dull-gray sky quickly darken the day through the tinted windows of the train. But we can still make out roads of the famous red-clay, which became a major character in the movie, 'My Cousin Vinnie'. With even the thinnest layer of rain, the stuff out our window would have the slipperiness of water on ice. Unless you were a native, walking on it would have been impossible...or would have left you stranded in the middle of the road begging for mommie! Passing through woods and fields next to trails, streams and back roads, for hours the ride is unremarkable highlighted by Cities like Birmingham and Atlanta. Dinner is a remarkable New Orlean's gumbo and a freshly baked chicken and was clearly the best meal we had on any segment of our journey.

As we slept the train passes through South Carolina and North Carolina and as breakfast is called we awaken in Charlottesville, Virginia. Bob decides to sleep in again so I headed to the dining car on my own. The breakfast special is biscuits and sausage with country gravy and grits. Oh my God, I haven't tasted anything this good since my late father's own cooking of this famous breakfast of Southern working people. So, luxuriating in the splendid simplicity of this thrombosis generating extravagance I decide to let Bob sleep and have another cup of coffee... or two.

Virginia continues to slide by with famous names like Culpepper, Manassas, Alexandria, then Washington. The roadbed throughout the Crescent's segment was among the best we found anywhere during our travels. So the trip up the Shenandoah Valley was smooth and punctuated by neat farms, rolling hills reflecting the gentile nature one associates with Virginia... unless you've ever lived in this area and received a traffic ticket for going 56 mph on their L-O-N-G Interstate highways. Having made that long, boring drive many times since moving North, I was very glad to be enjoying the postcard version from the train.

Monday, January 18, 2010, 12:05 pm: We roll out of Washington, DC's Union Station right on time and begin the transition from the gentile South to the Gritty North East as we pass through Baltimore with its massive steel works, prosperous Delaware with its equally prosperous chemical plants that steer us into arriving at Philadelphia's Union Station. The skyline of Philly has certainly changed since I lived there with lots of new skyscrapers making the city look like a 21^st Century megalopolis. Passing the famous boathouses along the Schuylkill River I noticed freshly restored and even a few new ones added to the mix since I lived here. Crews were lining up on the river for a race as we passed by giving the image a very Thomas Eakin's feel. The nice part of Philly rolls by and the endless stretches of row houses emphasize the important role neighborhoods continue to play in this great city.

Next, Trenton then Newark signals the packing point to close up the computer, gather our things and prepare for New York City's Pennsylvania Station where we arrive early at 2:05 pm Bob has us booked at a Holiday Inn Express only two short blocks from Penn Station.

For our short stay in New York we had arranged to reconnect with our Friends Mark and Jim and rekindle a relationship last fueled before we moved to Provincetown. Our Friend, Dirk from San Francisco who you will remember from the Posting from San Francisco is also in New York and joins us for dinner. Mark and Jim suggest the High-line and we walk from 22^nd street to its end near the Village where we have an incredible dinner at La Lunchonette on 10^th Ave. After dinner we make the long walk back up to 29th street, say our goodbye's and vow to never let this much time separate us again between visits.

Tuesday, January 19, 2020, 11:00am: North East corridor Service, NYC to Boston. The train was 20 minutes late and felt like an omen. if you've traveled this route before you know it can be notoriously delayed, but today we were in luck. This was an easy relaxing ride as we visited the memories along the way of New Haven, Guilford, our old home, and the beautiful Connecticut shoreline.

This was the perfect end to the perfect trip. We arrived in South Station Boston where we started 3 weeks and one day ago. With 5 minutes to spare we stepped onto the Kingston 'T' and headed off to meet our friend Austin and home to Provincetown.

NOTE...

Is this the end? Well, not eaxctly. we still have a lot of work to to edit all the entries one last time, add-in notes about favorite restaurants and places, link in other material so you can explore many of the same places we explored and most important, add-in the pictures. Through the course of the trip we made about 1000 images. Some you have already seen in the Lake Shore Limited and Empire Builder postings. Because they are shot through a thick piece of acrylic often dirty or scratched, all the images shot from the train require a lot of work. So it will take a few days to complete all the work.

Finally, we will also post an epilogue soon so we can share lots of things we learned about train travel along the way.   We can tell you this, we are already planning our next adventure and encourage you to do the same. We never regretted one part of this adventure and truly enjoyed every moment. We are very sorry to see it end.

So please check back from time to time to learn more about our trip.